It's rare that I clap for [watch] TV commercials. But Verizon just took AT&T to the mat -- er, map.

Technically, this is off-topic, but I think I can apply a little broad discretion when it comes to bad data -- That is, the data that every U.S. cell phone company uses to claim to be the best.

I know I spend a lot of time picking on Apple -- especially the the iPhone. But when something falls just short of great, it leaves room for criticism. That, however, doesn't describe Apple's choice of service partner. Verizon customers love their coverage. T-Mobile customers love their customer service. Sprint customers love their features (and free 3G roaming to Verizon). AT&T customers love their iPhones, and tolerate their service. Now Verizon is taking them to the map.

Watch and see what I mean.

Source: Wikipedia

In a match between Bird-brain vs. broadband, you might be surprised to see who wins.

An old friend of mine pointed out what sounded like an interesting story out of South Africa. Tired of slow download speeds, a South African call center pitted a racing pigeon against Telkom South Africa Ltd.’s ADSL data service to see which could move a 4GB file faster. In total it took just under three hours for the bird to fly approximately 50 miles--about 30 times faster than the ADSL service, which had only downloaded 4% of the file in the same time.

I'm afraid we're not really comparing apapane to apapane, or even apapane to ostriches. I doubt, for instance, that the pigeon would fair quite as well over, say, a 500 or 5000 mile "data run".

The experiment, however, raises what is perhaps a more relevant conclusion: You probably couldn't find a more secure method for moving data than via carrier pigeon. While all Internet traffic is subject to both warranted, and illicit intercept and monitoring at multiple gateways, routers, interconnection points, and hosts, one would be hard pressed to serve a warrant on--or even physically intercept--a carrier pigeon. Not to mention, even if they occasionally drop a "packet", it's hard to argue with their wireless range.

It's certainly something to think about.

Thanks Ron!

More at:

Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aB5JSWQt0XYY)

News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,26053119-5014239,00.html)

Israeli scientists are declaring war on DNA evidence. According to a paper published today in the journal, Forensic Science International: Genetics, scientists in Tel Aviv have have demonstrated that it is in fact possible to fabricate DNA evidence, opening up an entirely new avenue of reasonable doubt.

As quoted to the New York Times by lead author, Dr. Dan Frumkin, “You can just engineer a crime scene. Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”

Not surprisingly, Dr. Frumkin also claims to have developed a test to distinguish real DNA from manufactured evidence, which he hopes to sell to forensic labs.

If confirmed independently, this could spell the end to what has long been regarded as a flagship of forensic evidence--at least in prime time television--and usher in an age where DNA hacking becomes the newest form of identity theft.

Though, not strictly on-topic: I got a call today from my cellular telephone company offering to lower my monthly rate, plus add 500 shared minutes, plus unlimited messaging, free call forwarding (they were charging for call forwarding?!), and add unlimited data* (notice the asterisk) to the line that didn't have data, all for a few bucks less than I was already paying--and, no contract extension!

So, what's the catch?

I spent 2 hours on the phone, and researching online. I was skeptical, accusatory--even a little rude, at times. I just couldn't find anything wrong with the deal...unitl, I got to that pesky asterisk (*). (Not that I could actually see an asterisk, since the cell phone companies seem to have adopted the most liberal interpretation of an oral contract. Even Kim Basinger had to "shake on it".)

When I finally agreed that there was, apparently, nothing wrong with the offer, I asked for a "read-back" of the details. When she got to the "unlimited data", she paused and said, "well, you know, 5G's, or something like that. I mean, that's basically unlimited, right". (Insert screeching-brake sound effect here.)

I asked her to check my data usage history, and found that, when I'm traveling, I tend to go well over 5 Gigabytes of monthly usage on my current--actual--unlimited plan. Mind you, this may not be typical for all subscribers. After all, occasionally, I like to stream a little television from my smart-phone via a video adapter cable to the TV in my hotel room. And, though I won't admit to hacking my phone and unlocking its tethering capability, I could--if I wanted to. I also won't admit to broadcasting said broadband via wi-fi for a room full of people to use as an impromptu hot-spot, I could do that too--if I wanted to.

Finally, I could see why I was receiving the call. This was a Trojan Horse. An opportunity to blind a customer with pretty bauble's, as not to notice his fortress was being raided for all it's precious and truly unlimited bounty. I wasn't buyin' what she was sellin'.

Suffice it to say, a little haggling later (and, probably a little more rudeness), I kept my unlimited broadband, and lowered my cell phone bill.

Moral of the story: When a service is in abundant supply--in this case cellular providers--it's a buyers market. Now, if someone would just flood the market with physicians.